TV Review

This week, Rae finds herself realising she isn’t as grown up as her friends. It seems this episode has moved on by a few weeks and some of the gang have had changes in their lives. Finn is dating an older woman who is 24 (he is about 18). Chloe is hanging out with an older group of lads. Archie is getting teased for being gay by people he considered friends. Rae and Liam are just friends, although he has split up with his girlfriend Amy after the incidents of the previous episode.

Rae is seen smoking a spliff by her step-dad Kareem, and when she goes back home her Mum puts her foot down and gives Rae a curfew of 10pm every night. Rae feels she is being treated like a child. When she goes to Chloe’s 17th birthday party she feels left out of the landmark stages of growing up, as Chloe is given a car for her birthday. Rae decides to throw out any objects which are childish. Her Mum is sorting things out for the new baby, and Rae finds a photo from when she was a baby with her real father in it. Rae decides to ask her Mum for contact details for her father.

On a night out with friends, Rae gets on well with one of the older guys from the new group that Chloe has been hanging out with. She stays out all night and tries to sneak in before her Mum wakes up. This plan backfires; Rae and her Mum have a big argument and her Mum tells her if she wants to do what she wants, she can move out. In the heat of the argument, Rae’s Mum gives her the contact details for her real dad, and Rae decides to go see her father. Rae’s father realises who she is, and the meeting goes well. Rae feels that maybe her father will treat her more like an adult. By the end of the meeting, he takes her to a car park to show her how to drive. Rae’s father tells her that he would like to get to know her; she is wary at first whether to trust him.

Chloe invites Rae to a party with a group of older people. Rae ends up being cornered in the bathroom by the older guy she was getting along with. Rae stands up to him and he insinuates she is a tease. She manages to escape, but Chloe won’t leave with her. In college Rae and Chloe have an argument; Chloe calls Rae frigid because of how she had been with Finn. It looks like this argument may spell doom for their friendship.

Rae decides to be more adult by going to Finn and seducing him. A few days before, Finn had announced he had split up with the older girl he was dating, and that he hated college. He had been given a job opportunity working for his Uncle in the next city. When Rae goes to find Finn she is told by his Dad that Finn left that morning and would be back to visit later that month. Rae goes to see Liam instead, and seduces him. A few days before they had had a conversation about having a casual relationship. Liam suggested that Rae wasn’t the type to have that type of relationship. Rae starts to take her clothes off but Liam said it would be best if they both keep their clothes on, but Rae gives Liam a blow job in an attempt to be more adult.

This episode we are left wondering what Rae will do next. When she finally decided to talk to Finn and be more adult, she found he had already left. I think Rae felt pressured into doing more adult things like her friends, having more adult relationships and pushing the boundaries with her Mum. By the end of the episode there seems to be a ruction within the friendship group. Chop and Izzy, who seemed a solid couple, have split. Archie saw Izzy kissing another boy. He thinks she should tell Chop, who is friends with the guys who have been teasing Archie for being gay, and Chop is forced to choose between being friends with Archie or the other guys. Izzy splits up with Chop because she can’t face telling Chop she kissed another guy.

Rae is left wondering what is happening with her friends. This episode had a darker side to it. Rae realised that the people she would turn to wouldn’t always be there. When she goes to see her therapist she realises that she can’t keep turning to him outside of the sessions as he has a private life. I hope events get better for Rae and she can sort out the issues within the friendship group. We still want a happy ending for her and Finn!